Parking Permits in the Neighborhood

For those of you who live in a Residential Parking Permit (RPP) zone, you probably have noticed that the RPP fees have increased. This occurred as part of the annual adjustments made to the Master Fee Schedule for our entire city. We discussed this at two public hearings at the Council's Finance Committee, and at a full City Council meeting back in June of this year.

The annual RPP fees had been $35 or less for a long time. City staff proposed raising the residential parking permit fee to $82 for new and renewal permits, based on a financial analysis of costs to the city to administer the RPP program. They determined that the cost was $82, and they put that annual fee into the updated Master Fee Schedule and the new budget for our City. While the $82 level would equate to a full cost-recovery so as not to be a burden on the city's tight budget, I felt strongly that that amount was too high for people to be able to park on their own block, so I proposed to reduce the proposed increase to $59 per year for renewals "a compromise fee amount" $23 less than what was proposed for adoption. I subsequently convinced my colleagues on the Council to accept the reduced fee amount of $59 as I proposed. This is in line with our neighboring city to the north (Berkeley is $55).

My office has since received a lot of inquiries about the new daily visitor parking fee, which used to be a ridiculously low $1 per dayÑeven though it cost a lot more than that for the city to process. The new visitor fee is $9 for one day, $18 for two days, and effectively $25 for 3-14 days. However, I realize that paying for parking for babysitters, home health aides, day laborers, etc. could add up. I therefore have proposed that the city reduce the one-day permit fee amount to $5. This fee reduction was to be heard at the City Council on November 3.